Will Conservative Pundit S.E. Cupp Tell The Right To Stop Its Extremist Rhetoric?

What planet does S.E. Cupp live on? Somehow, she seems to have missed the inflammatory, extremistrhetoriccomingfromtheright these days. Instead, she whined on Hannity last night (10/8/09), “Frankly, the rhetoric on the left has gotten so ugly.” She was referring to a Jon Corzine ad that supposedly takes a jab (indirectly) at his Republican opponent’s weight. But she also complained that the Obama administration had insulted “the American people.” She added that someone from the left should “be sort of a moral arbiter and say, ‘Enough, this is ugly.’” In that case, can we expect her to tell the right it’s time to tone down their rhetoric? I doubt it. Later in the same segment, Cupp started up with her own smearing. With video.

Since this was a Hannity discussion, there had to be at least something about the Number One issue facing this country, judging from the amountofairtime it’s been getting on Hannity: “safe schools czar” Kevin Jennings. Never mind that Hannity had already spent two segments on the show discussing Jennings, including an interview with George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos had told Hannity, “I don’t think you have the goods on this one, Sean.” Stephanopoulos went on to give careful, considered answers to Hannity about why he thought Kevin Jennings is a non-story.

Hannity had been respectful and polite to Stephanopoulos to his face. Now that he was gone, Hannity accused him of “basically regurgitating the entire talking points of the left.”

Cupp chimed in with an unsubstantiated accusation that was not exactly what you’d call respectful. Without offering any reason for arriving at such a conclusion, she accused the media of “either purposely turning a blind eye or they’re all in cahoots and they’re trying to bury this kind of stuff to protect their guy (President Obama). I mean, they helped him get elected. They have a vested interest in making sure his life goes smoothly.”

Hannity promised, “I am not letting go of this story… I’m not going to give it away. There’s more coming.”

“Mmm, good!” Cupp said enthusiastically. She later added, “The mainstream media made an investment during the 2008 presidential election… So now, they want to make sure that that investment turns out well, so of course they’re going to protect him. They have, like, a business stake in this guy.”

Yeah, that’s really doing your part to tone down the rhetoric, S.E.!

Note: Since I drafted this post, President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize and many figures on the right have attacked the decision in ugly ways, including RedState's smear that the prize was awarded to satisfy an "affirmative action quota." Will S.E. Cupp stick to her own standard of conduct?